A Grand Day Out...

Also that a torpedo is carefully designed to be equal in weight to the equivalent volume of sea water so that once fired, the briney rushes in to take its place in a tube, without upsetting the trim of the boat. Clever stuff.

I'd say that the overriding reason that the equivalent specific gravity of the torpedo was the same as seawater was to ensure that in use it would naturally float beneath the surface with the actual depth easily controlled by small pitch-control "elevators". Clever stuff, too.

So, with the Navy retiring, the job was left to the RAF with assistance from the Russkis: Operations Paravane, Obviate and Catechism. The Tirpitz had now moved to the Haakoy region in the Tromso fjord. And this is where the final battle, Catechism, took place, with the battleship suffering two direct hits by Tallboys. The battleship capsized, trapping over 900 of its crew of 1700.

According to Paul Brickhill's 'The Dam Busters', the Royal Navy got very sniffy and claimed Tirpitz wasn't really sunk as part of her was still visible above the surface...

I read somewhere that bits of her are still used by the roads department for temporary hole covers during roadworks and such like.

According to Paul Brickhill's 'The Dam Busters', the Royal Navy got very sniffy and claimed Tirpitz wasn't really sunk as part of her was still visible above the surface...

I read somewhere that bits of her are still used by the roads department for temporary hole covers during roadworks and such like.

She lay for years with the bottom of the hull visible above the surface of the water. If she were to be "sunk" in RN terms, they would have to dig a huge hole in the bottom of the sea for her superstructure to sink into.The fjord was very shallow at the places where the Kriegsmarine chose to anchor her, hoping to avoid any submarine attacks. The anti-submarine nets around the Tirpiz - three of them, with three metres between each net - reached all the way down to the bottom of the fjord.

"Thanks for the interesting link. The most famous exploit of the X Craft was the attack on Tirpitz, Bismarck's sister ship, which took place in September 1943. Tirpitz was moored in a highly protected and fortified anchorage in Kaafjord, above the Arctic circle in Norway. She had been sent there to attack the Allied convoys that were taking war materiel to the USSR. Six X craft set out from Britain, but only two managed to deposit their amytol charges beneath Tirpitz, which was seriously damaged and put out of action for many months. It was an extraordinarily hazardous operation and the skippers of the two successful boats received the VC. The X craft were very dangerous at the best of times. They were hard to control, and were prone to surfacing even when they were supposed to remain submerged. At least two were lost with all hands as a result of training accidents. Of the six that set out to attack Tirpitz, two simply disappeared and no trace of them has yet been found. The crews of the two boats that were successful were immediately captured when their boats became uncontrollable and surfaced right beside Tirpitz. They were on board when the explosives detonated. They all survived and became POW's. This episode was the subject of a British film of the 1950's called Above us the Waves, which starred John Mills and John Gregson, among many familiar faces. It is pretty faithful--faithful enough, anyway-- to the actual story and is well worth a look.

Until a couple of years ago I made regular visits to a customer in Wallasey on the Wirral. I always passed a German U Boat sitting on wooden blocks on the edge of the docks covered in rust. It must have been there for 4 or 5 years and has since been restored? - well cut into pieces and put on display.

Did anyone else visit the Russian submarine that was doing the rounds of our ports? It was moored near Woolwich, then later at Folkestone and on the Medway - I don't know where it is now or if it's still open to the public.

According to Paul Brickhill's 'The Dam Busters', the Royal Navy got very sniffy and claimed Tirpitz wasn't really sunk as part of her was still visible above the surface...

I believe it was the 'Lutzow' that got the RN sniffy, when she was hit by (also by a Tallboy bomb) on 16th April 1945 in harbour near Stettin and sank on an even keel with her upper deck still above water and able to use her main battery for fire support afterwards.

Brickhill said of the successful 'Tirpitz' attack that the crews were expecting some praise at the next day's debrief/briefing for the next op, but all the AOC said was 'Yesterday....attack successful - Tirpitz sunk! Now, today's op....."

I believe it was the 'Lutzow' that got the RN sniffy, when she was hit by (also by a Tallboy bomb) on 16th April 1945 in harbour near Stettin and sank on an even keel with her upper deck still above water and able to use her main battery for fire support afterwards.

Brickhill said of the successful 'Tirpitz' attack that the crews were expecting some praise at the next day's debrief/briefing for the next op, but all the AOC said was 'Yesterday....attack successful - Tirpitz sunk! Now, today's op....."

Excellence was expected......

Paul M

Brickhill's book is an entertaining read but apparently some of it requires a large pinch of NaCl. Which is OK.

1 - Years of clean living and a fish diet...plus a very generous old friend...or three.

2 - Croft Autodrome - which proved, on my first ever visit, to be a far more interesting and well-kempt circuit than I have ever suspected (at least until one came to the most recent Mickey Mouse little loop and hairpin around the present pits).

The car is run - if not frequently - quite regularly...and I can assure you it is in the rudest of good health. In fact it handles like a dream, its gearchange and brakes are outstanding, and the car goes, I promise you, like an absolute Bomba!

[quote name='David Birchall' date='Jul 29 2013, 15:32' post='6375440']
Wonderful photos and captions Doug. To add a very little to the submarine photos: A friend who passed away a few years ago was the navigating officer on HMS Venturer, the only submarine to ever sink another submarine while both were submerged. My friend was Peter Brand and he had a very strong motorsport connection having been Clerk of the Course at Westwood (western Canada) in the seventies and eighties and something similar at Silverstone (?) in much earlier years.http://en.wikipedia....submarine_U-864

I resurrected this thread because as a result of my above posting I learned that there had been a book published on this incident called "Code Name Caesar". I have now read the book and found it mentions my old friend Peter C. Brand in several places-he was quite the guy!
The book is very well researched and presents both sides of the conflict plus the Norwegian side who were the unwilling hosts of the Nazi U Boat pens later in the war. I would not wish to be a submariner-then or now. I bought a "used" copy of the book only to find it was new and presumably a remainder:http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/0425253627

I have sent a copy to Peter Brand's widow who was unaware of this book and she is sending me Peter's written report of the encounter which has never been published and which the authors of this book were unaware of.

The German submarine U-864 was carrying German and Japanese technicians and scientists along with full plans for the Me163 and the Me262 aircraft to Japan with the hope that their introducing of these aircraft in the Pacific war would distract the American forces from Europe and help Germany to regroup. It was thus a very important target.